IF you want to find out more about the local history of Kintyre or post some interesting stories then here is the place! All contributors welcome! You can also check out the Historic Kintyre and Down Memory Lane websites.

glenn wrote:Just thinking... wouldn't it be fantastic if the forum "fat controllers" could set an on-line kintyre history competition. like University Challenge , where forum members were grouped into 4s , and it was a knockout , to see who won !You've got the forum names from the history posting etc .,so can you computer whizz-kidz do it ? I hope so !

Aye, but who would pick the teams?

I don't know if such a thing would be possible, but it would be great if it was possible! It would be very interesting for those of us who would like to learn a bit more about local history, and would maybe stimulate a bit of interest in the subject. There are different categories of history, such as recent changes and events around the area within living memory of forum members, there is town history such as the Flemings Land thread, and there is older history of Kintyre and its place within the context of the wider history of Scotland. I am thinking here of the 1947 book by William McKerral "Kintyre in the 17th Century".

From my own perspective, I would like to know more about the historical connections with Ireland, as Kintyre was the nearest point of contact with our nearest ethnic relatives across the water. My recent visits to the Republic of Ireland have made me think about how much we in areas like Argyll have in common with them culturally.

Let's not forget that Campbeltown and Kintyre were not always a "remote area". In the days when sea travel was the norm, it was quite a prominent and important place. It was the largest town in Argyll up till the 1950s.

I have information that my forefathers McMaster, set sail with 9 children from Kintyre to Ireland. I have documented information from 1760, but before that no documentation of the McMasters. It would certainly seem that travel to Ireland was pretty common from Kintyre. This family were Presbyterians and stayed that way in ireland, even to this present day.